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#12 Basic RSS Email Newsletter

Email newsletters help you make sure your readers don’t miss a thing on your blog! They are a handy feature and light reminder to them of your blogs content.

We might not be competing with the likes of Net-a-porter with this email newsletter design but it is getting content out to your readers in a presentable manner that still maintains your brand image and thats the important part!

I completed this tutorial sat in a cafe watching it go from day time to a very dark and gloomy night time, yet even though this tutorial maybe be long, it is not difficult. Get set up with your tea and biscuits again and you are ready to go!

First we will start by installing a plugin which we will use later in the tutorial. Please install this plugin called WP RSS Images. It will allow us to have images in our RSS feed and therefore allowing us to have images in our email newsletters.

Install the plugin by selecting Plugins and then Add new in the left hand sidebar:

Then select upload and add the zip file of the plugin you have just downloaded:

Once installed select Activate Plugin:

Once installed and activated click on settings and then WP RSS Images in the left hand side bar:

Make sure your settings are displayed like this:

Next to start making your email newsletters open and sign into mailchimp. We learnt how to set-up mailchimp when we set up the Pop-Up (#2 Pop-Up) so should already have an account if not please follow the instructions to do so here.

Once open click on campaign in the left hand side bar, then select the dropdown link next to ‘create campaign’ in the right hand corner and select New RSS-Driven campaign:

First enter the URL of your blog with /feed/ at the end and then select the time and days you wish to send them like shown below and click next:

Next select the list of subscribers you wish to send the email to and click next:

For the Set-Up, you will need to add the name of your campaign and check the ‘From name’ and ‘From email address’ is correct. For the email subject I have it set-up so that it gives the title of the article for that day and the date.

Next select tracking and choose the options you want, I have selected these:

You can also select to send a tweet out or allow Facebook comments when each newsletter goes out:

After you have decided and filled out all the options click next.

Now we need to decide on the design, to do this we will be using RSS tags to bring in information from the the blog to the email newsletter.

You will now be presented with this screen, you need to select email designer:

Next click on basic templates on the right hand side:

Next click on basic templates and select “1 Column – Banded”:

You will now get this screen, hover over the ‘designing your email’ section and press the pencil to edit it:

Next using this webpage as reference to tags, I have entered these tags:

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*|RSSITEMS:|*

*|RSSITEM:TITLE|*

*|RSSITEM:IMAGE|*

*|RSSITEM:CONTENT|*

Find out more here.

*|END:RSSITEMS|*

NB- for the *|RSSITEM:IMAGE|* tag to work you will need to have downloaded the WP RSS Image plugin and set set up your WordPress to allow for featured images in posts like we did in #8 Feature Post Slider here. Each blog post will now need to have a featured image.

When I entered the title RSS feed Title I made it link to the post on the site by highlighting it and selecting the link button in the text editor (currently greyed out in the image below). I then added the RSS URL item tag (*|RSSITEM:URL|*) so it would link to the correct post. I also did this for the word ‘here’ after I wrote “Find out more here”. When entering a tag always clear styles first and then set the style you wish.

Click Save and Close and next drag and drop text box under the one you have just edited and add this tag:

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*|RSS:RECENT5|*

You can change the number at the end of this tag to show a certain amount of post links.

Underneath this box, I have added another which contain images of the twitter and pinterest buttons which are then linked up to the sites:

Next add the title of the post to the header of the email as well on the left hand side by add this tag:

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*|RSSITEM:TITLE|*

For this main image enter your logo or header image on your blog:

Your main section should end up looking something like this:

You can preview and test your email by clicking in the top right hand corner, it will display it like this:

Once you are happy with your design click next and it will show you the plain text message:

Click on ‘Copy Text From HTML Email’ you should get this message:

Click next and you should be all ready to send:

Click on ‘Start RSS’ and your email campaigns will be scheduled to be sent:

To see the final product in full swing, make sure to sign up to our newsletter!

DAY 12 COMPLETE!

Leave a comment with any questions or to submit your progress and make sure to check out the blog tomorrow and see what has changed!

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